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No. 71 



LB 3485 
.08 
Copy 1 



OPEN AIR SCHOOLS 



LEONARD P. AYRES, A.M., Ph.D. 

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF CHILD HYGIENE, RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION 



Reprinted from 

The Proceedings of the Albany ioio Meeting of the Committee 

on the Prevention of Tuberculosis of the New York 

State Charities Aid Association 



DEPARTMENT OF CHILD HYGIENE 
RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION 

1 Madison Avenue, New York City 



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Open Air Schools 

LEONARD P. AYRES, A.M., Ph.D. 

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF CHILD HYGIENE, RUSSELL SAGE 

FOUNDATION 



In the year 1904 there were in Charlottenburg, a suburb of 
Berlin, a large number of backward children who were about 
to be removed from the ordinary elementary schools to special 
classes. An examination showed that many of these children 
were physically debilitated owing to anemia, various ailments 
in incipient stages and to the results of more serious diseases 
from which some of them were convalescing. This circum- 
stance offered an ideal opportunity for the co-operation of the 
educator and the school physician and to meet the need a new 
type of school was devised. This was the open air recovery 
school in which sick children were cured and taught at the same 
time. Such a new departure in school administration could 
not long remain unnoticed, and in 1908 the London County 
Council published a description of this educational innovation 
together with an account of the first English school of the new 
type. It is from this report that the present descriptions are 
largely taken. 

A suitable place for the new school was chosen in a large pine 
forest on the outskirts of the town. Plain sheds were erected 
which sheltered the children during the rainy weather. But in 
the main the school was kept in the open air. Specially skilled 
teachers were put in charge and no teacher had more than 
twenty-five pupils. 

The children reached the school about eight o'clock in the 
morning. Upon their arrival they received a bowl of soup and 
a slice of bread and butter. Classes commenced at eight 
o'clock with an interval of five minutes after every half hour 
of teaching. Instruction was reduced to the most necessary 
subjects and never given for more than two consecutive hours. 

3 



At ten o'clock the children received one or two glasses of milk 
and another slice of bread and butter. After this they played 
about, performed gymnastic exercises, did manual work and 
read. Dinner was served at half past twelve and after dinner 
the children rested or slept for two hours. At three o'clock 
there were some classes and at four milk, rye bread and jam 
were distributed. The rest of the afternoon was devoted to 
informal instruction and play. At seven o'clock came the last 
meal of the day and then the children returned home. 

After the first few weeks a great improvement in the condition 
of the children was shown by their better appetite, attention 
and general temperament. Among 107 children suffering from 
anemia, scrofula, heart trouble and pulmonary diseases 74 
were totally cured or greatly improved in the three months the 
school remained open. On the average they gained half a 
pound each week during the entire period. Many of them in- 
creased eight or ten pounds during the three months and some 
of them as much as eighteen pounds. 

These physical changes for the better were gratify- 

Kept up ing but hardly surprising. But what did come as a 

With distinct surprise was the fact that these children did 

Classes not fall behind in their school studies. On the contrary, 

although they devoted less than half as much time to the 

regular subjects as the children in the ordinary elementary 

schools, they had no trouble in keeping up with their classes. 

When they returned to take their regular places in the ordinary 

schools it was found that instead of having lost they had gained 

and were ahead rather than behind their former companions. 

Since the establishment of the first Charlottenburg school the 
plant has been enlarged and similar work has been carried on 
each year since. Moreover, other schools of the same sort are 
being organized all over Germany, and there has yet to be 
recorded a single case of disappointment, failure or abandon- 
ment of work once begun. 

The fame of the German schools soon spread to England and 
in 1907 the London County Council decided to try a similar 
experiment. They opened their school at Bostall Wood in the 



outskirts of the great city. The children who were chosen for 
the experiment were of the type familiar to those who have much 
contact with city schools of the congested districts. They 
were thin, pinched, pale and wasted and showed in every case 
signs of physical enfeeblement. They were children who had 
been unable to keep pace with the other children of the school 
and usually attended irregularly and were incapable of con- 
tinued mental or physical exertion. 




A NEW USE FOR A ROOF 
An open air school "room" in Chicago 

The school was kept open for thirteen weeks. Much the same 
plan with respect to teaching, food, rest and play was followed 
as has already been described in the case of the Charlottenburg 
school. Despite numerous difficulties a notable success was 
achieved. The general improvement of the children was great 
and in some instances remarkable. The beneficial effects of 
the open air life were shown by their improved color and ani- 
mated demeanor. They were better and more full of spirits 



at the end of the^school term than at the beginning. They 
moved more briskly Jand their intellects were keener. On the 
average they gained half a pound apiece during each week they 
attended school. 



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CHART I.— INCREASE IN WEIGHT OF KATHLEEN, BOSTALL WOOD OPEN AIR 

SCHOOL 
Note decrease during eighth week when she was absent 

Two cases may be shown in detail as typical. A little girl 
named Kathleen entered the school during the second week. 



She weighed a trifle more than sixty-eight pounds. The heavy 
line on the diagram shows how her weight increased during the 
following weeks. In the next week she weighed more than 
sixty-nine pounds, then nearly seventy-three, then seventy-five, 
then seventy-six, and in the seventh week seventy-seven pounds. 
During the following week she was absent and her continuous 
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CHART II.-1NCREASE IN WE1UH 1 OF ARTHUR. BOS1ALL WOOD OPEN AIR 

SCHOOL 

Note decrease during sixth week when he was absent 

returned she had lost a pound, but during the following week 
when she was again in attendance at the school she made this 
up and gained nearly three pounds more. This reflects in a 
graphic way the beneficial results of the life at the open air 
school, but the evidence becomes thoroughly convincing when 
we find the same story repeated in many other cases. 



One of the very little boys was named Arthur. When he 
entered the school he weighed just a little more than thirty-nine 
pounds. During the first week there was little if any gain. 
During the second week he gained almost two pounds and during 
the third week four more. This weight he maintained for one 
week and then was absent for a week. During that week of 
absence he lost more than half of what he had gained during 
the previous five weeks, but on his return he began, first slowly 
and then rapidly, to make up the lost ground. 

That these are not isolated cases is shown by what happened 
in another English outdoor school — the one maintained by the 
city of Bradford. The wonderful story of the results secured 
in the Bostall Wood school spread throughout England and not 
only have more and larger schools been organized by the city 
of London, but a number have been started in other cities. 
One of the most thoroughly successful and well equipped was 
that opened in 1908 by the city of Bradford. Here about forty 
children were cared for during nine weeks. They were de- 
scribed as "very poorly developed," "delicate," "neglected 
looking," "anemic" and "scrofulous." The general plan of 
the school did not differ greatly from that of the previ- 
Value of ous ones. The children were simply given pure air, 
Good Food good food, wholesome surroundings and common 
and Air sense school work. The results were similar to those 

secured in Berlin and London. 
The diagram shows the average increase in weight during the 
nine weeks the school was open. It amounts on the average to 
nearly half a pound per week per child. The broad solid line 
shows how it kept steadily climbing upward as week after week 
passed. It also shows how the average weight of the entire 
class of forty children dropped off when the school was closed 
in the last week in October. 

Perhaps the city of Bradford in England has done more real 
scientific social work than has any other English city. They 
have a curious and unique way there of judging educational 
processes in terms of their results instead of by guesswork and 
oratory. The school authorities of Bradford approached the 



ORDER FORM 



1 910. 

DoUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 

I 33 _I 37 East Sixteenth Street, 

New York City, N. Y. 
Gentlemen: 

Enclosed with this find $ for which please 

send me copies of 

OPEN AIR SCHOOLS, by Ayres 
at $1.20 each plus 12 cents for postage. 

Name 

Street, Number 

City, State 



Copies sent on approval if desired. 



problem of measuring the results of the outdoor school on this 
same scientific basis. While they recorded each week the aver- 
age gain in weight of the children in the outdoor school they also 



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CHART III.— SHOWING THE AVERAGE WEEKLY GAIN OR LOSS IN WEIGHT OF 

CHILDREN ATTENDING THE BRADFORD OPEN AIR RECOVERY SCHOOL 
The dotted line shows the average increase which takes place in case of children under 

ordinary conditions 

weighed each week an equal number of children from the same 
social classes who were in the regular schools. These children 
did not have the outdoor treatment. Their gain in weight is 
shown on the diagram by the dotted line. The difference be- 



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tween the increase indicated by the dotted line and the lesser 
increase indicated by the solid line is an eloquent measure of 
the beneficial effects of the outdoor treatment. 

The credit and honor of initiating the first open air school in 
America belongs to Providence, Rhode Island. In January, 
1908, the school authorities of that city remodeled one of their 







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AGE FOR CLASS 

Note falling off during vacation 

school rooms so as to convert the ordinary four-sided room into 
one of three sides, leaving one entire side open to the air. In 
this room they began in the dead of winter to teach a class 
of children variously termed "anemic" or "pretubercular." 
The children wore their outdoor wraps, they sat in warm sitting- 
out bags and on cold days had warm soapstones at their feet. 



They were well fed and their school studies reduced in quantity 
but not in quality. 

The success of the experiment may well be judged by the re- 
sults of the hemoglobin tests among these children. For the 
information of the non-medical it may be explained that the 
red color in the blood is due to the presence in the red blood 
corpuscles of a chemical substance known as hemoglobin. 
This substance plays a very important part in carrying the 
oxygen from the air in the lungs to all the tissues of the body, 
and the proportion in which it is present in the blood 
is a valuable indicator of the degree of anemia present Hemoglo- 
and of the condition of the child's health. The nor- bin Tests 
mal percentage is 100. 

When the children entered the Providence school in January 
the average percentage was a little less than 74. Five months 
later in June it had increased until it was almost 84. During 
the summer vacation the school was closed. When the children 
returned in September the percentage had fallen almost to 74, 
but by January it had reached 79, and by June 84 once more. 

Six months after Providence began work an open air school 
for tubercular children was started in one of the Boston parks. 
There were forty-one children in that school and after the first 
summer's work it was found that there were twenty-three cases 
where the disease was either arrested or entirely cured. These 
twenty-three children were sent back to the regular schools and 
at last reports all but two of them were still enjoying good health. 

Five months later, in December of 1908, work was begun in 
New York. This latter instance is particularly interesting for 
two reasons: First, because the school was opened on an aban- 
doned ferry boat which shows what good use may be made of 
apparently useless localities even in the most congested cities. 
The second interesting feature is that this school was opened 
on the petition of the children themselves. They were the 
patients from one of the hospitals who were convalescing and 
who were being given open air treatment on the old ferry 
boat. One day these children got together and organized a 
strike. They told the doctor in charge that they wanted to 



have a school. The Board of Education at once offered to 
furnish them a teacher and school material and so the school 
was opened. Since that time three ferry boats and a roof have 
been pressed into service. 

In Chicago work was begun in a camp during the summer of 
1909 and since that time very notable progress has been made 
both in open air schools and in cold air school rooms in that city. 
These were the only schools in Chicago which had no Christmas 
vacation last winter. The children simply refused to take a 
vacation. They demanded that they be allowed to go to school 
and the school authorities yielded to their demands. 

Hartford is doing very good work in a school in a tent and 
Pittsburgh is utilizing the balconies of one of its hospitals. In 
a number of other cities, notably Rochester, Washington, and 
Newark, there is now active agitation in favor of open- 
Growth ing these schools. Moreover, the school board of New 
In York City has voted to remodel twenty school rooms 

America so that the children may enjoy open air treatment, and 
work has already begun in some of them. Boston is 
planning to open such a room in each of its largest school 
houses, and there too the work is already under way. 

Only a few brief words can be devoted to the two most in- 
teresting problems of cost and need. The expense of beginning 
work in an open air school depends on local conditions almost 
exclusively. In this country the available experience points to 
a solution of administrative problems by a division of responsi- 
bility. In nearly every American open air school the cost for 
teachers' salaries, added equipment, etc., is met by the Board 
of Education, while the expense for food and clothing is de- 
frayed by hospitals, charitable organizations and societies for 
the prevention and cure of tuberculosis. 

In the foreign schools the expense for food amounts to about 
sixteen cents per day for each child. For this sum four meals 
are provided. It would be impossible to furnish these meals for 
such a low price in America. In this country the cost for two 
meals per day for each child seems to be in the neighborhood of 
twenty cents, while three meals cost about thirty cents. 



Figures from Germany, England, Sweden and seven American 
cities indicate that in the average city school system the children 
who are in need of such treatment as that afforded by the open 
air schools constitute from three to five per cent, of the entire 
school membership. This means that Albany, for example, 
should have open air schools in sufficient numbers to care for 
three hundred children, while New York City needs accommoda- 
tions for twenty thousand. 

When such figures as these are mentioned the objection of 
expense looms high at once. But it must not be forgotten when 
we are considering expense that a thousand children of school 
age die each year of tuberculosis in New York City. On the 
average they have each had about six years of schooling for 
which the city has paid about $250. This means a 
quarter of a million dollars loss each year in the The Cost 
great city in money expended on educating children 
who die of tuberculosis before growing up. A quarter of a 
million dollars a year spent in open air schools designed to pre- 
vent this frightful waste would go far toward meeting the entire 
expense. 

But the matter of expense and preventable money loss are 
not the most important phases of the problem of the open air 
school. Compute as we will we can never arrive at an estimate in 
dollars and cents of the value of wrecked hopes and ruined homes. 

I do not believe that the ultimate banishment of the great 
white plague is destined to be the most notable and far reaching 
result of this world-wide crusade for saner and more wholesome 
living in which we are all engaged. 

Neither do I believe that the open air school is to win its most 
notable victories merely as a factor in the fight against tuber- 
culosis. 

The open air school will take its place in the history of edu- 
cation as marking one long step toward that school system of 
the future in which the child will not have to be either feeble 
minded or delinquent or truant or tuberculous in order to enjoy 
the best and fullest sorts of educational opportunity. 



OPEN AIR SCHOOLS 

BY LEONARD P. AYRES, A. M., Ph. D. 

Associate Director, Department of Child Hygiene, Russell Sage Foundation; 

Co-Author of Medical Inspection of Schools; Author of Laggards in 

Our Schools, etc. 

The first book in any language devoted to the new type of schools in which 
sick and ailing children are made healthy and vigorous and at the same time 
make better progress in their lessons than normal children in ordinary schools. 
Profusely and beautifully illustrated. 

Doubleday, Page & Co., New York Price $1.20 (postage 12c.) 

Russell Sage Foundation Publications 



MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS 

BY LUTHER HALSEY GULICK, M. D. 

Director of Physical Training of the New York Public Schools; and 

LEONARD P. AYRES, A. M„ Ph. D. 

Formerly General Superintendent of Schools for Porto Rico 
"Lucidly exhaustive and admirably arranged." — The Nation. 
"A notable contribution both to medicine and to school administration." — Erie 
Dispatch. 

"An important contribution to the cause of Education." — Journal of Edu- 
cation. 

Third Edition. Price, postpaid, $1.00 

LAGGARDS IN OUR "SCHOOLS 

A Study of Retardation and Elimination in City School Systems 
BY LEONARD P. AYRES, A. M., Ph. D. 

Formerly General Superintendent of Schools for Porto Rico; Co-Author of 
Medical Inspection of Schools, Author of Open Air Schools. 

"Mr. Ayres has given life to his figures and character to his diagrams." — ■ 
American Industries. 

"Such a book, at once readable and scholarly, scientific and popular, critical 
and constructive, is typical of the best in educational literature." — The Independent. 

"It is the most important specific study of school conditions that has been 
made by any one." — Journal of Education. 

Third Edition. Price, postpaid, $1.50. In lots of six, $1.00 each, postpaid 



THE WIDER USE OF THE SCHOOL 
PLANT 

BY CLARENCE ARTHUR PERRY 

A volume of 350 pages with 32 illustrations describing fully the use of the 
school plant for such activities as Vacation Schools, Public Lectures, Social Centres, 
Evening Schools, etc. Such features as social betterment, administration, cost, 
and organization are fully treated. 

Price, postpaid, $1.25 

CHARITIES PUBLICATION COMMITTEE 

105 East 22d Street, New York City, N. Y. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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